New Book

Today I will receive the first printing of the book I alluded to in some prior posts. So I think this is a good time to explain what the book is all about. The title really says it all: The Successful Home Business Guide: Practical advice for starting and operating a productive and profitable home-based business.

The idea for the book took form from the convergence of many of my early blogs and my work with COSE on its Home Network advisory board. As the winter progressed I also had a strong sense that a book on profitable home businesses makes a lot of sense as an increasing number of unemployed people are searching for non-traditional means of earning an income.

Initial research showed that there are today over 20 million home based businesses contributing over $350 billion to the US economy, which accounts for a significant percentage of workers. The further question in my mind was to what extent the businesses are really productive and profitable?

So, in my book, I tried to cover all the bases from starting a business to closing it, with all the information one needs to fund, market, sell, collect money, price goods and services, hire employees, and survive in a home environment in between.

In order to publish the book I considered several options, including the traditional publishing route. Current research confirmed my past experience that a) it takes several months to negotiate a deal with a major publisher; b) once the manuscript is in the hands of a publisher it takes an average of 18 months for the book to be published; c) the author is expected to market and promote the book. So the option I chose was to self-publish, a growing trend among relatively obscure authors who don’t mind doing the leg-work.

So over the past five months: I’ve written the book, had it edited by the wonderful Carolyn Jack, designed the book and cover, and contracted to get it printed. As I explained a few days ago, I’ve also written a marketing plan. All great and exciting stuff. I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

The Successful Home Business Guide will be available at amazon.com.

Will Limkemann
440-871-0976
will@limkemann.net